Rise of Darkness
by Scorch The Earth
Summary: When an ancient snake bites Quinntin Montgomery Garmadon, his life is forever changed. And as the evil venom begins to effect him more and more with every day, and turns his loving heart into a cold hard stone, his brother, Wu, and their best friend, Misako, become more determined to find a cure.(A Ninago prequel)(some swearing)(For the sake of plot, there is no Chen)
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Life, as I have come to learn, is unfair. Forever against you, always twisting fate to combat you. Making each new day a challenge, forcing you to fear every sunrise, and to only ever relax when sleeping.

I know the grip of life.

I had my family ripped away from me by some injustice called "destiny". My life's course already written for me, leaving me with nothing to do but to follow the path towards my doom.

I'm an older, wiser man now, of course. Free of my dreadful, poisoned chains, free of my wish to be the world's undoing. Free to be happy and enjoy my son, whom I am so proud of, and my best friends, Wu and Misako.

But my life from before still haunts me. I cannot help but lower my head in shame each time a complete stranger tells me of the damage I had done to their life, or the loved ones they had lost because of me.

I cannot ignore the pain I experienced, after coming back to my true self, free of my chains, and see my brother's pupils limp and groan from the injuries I had inflicted on them.

I could argue that all the things I have done were things I didn't have control over. But at the same time, that would be a lie. The anger I possessed was part due to the evil blood coursing through my veins, yes. But I was also angry at destiny.

I hadn't trained all my youth to become an evil dark lord. I had trained to become a respectful, honorable warrior. I had never wanted to end up hating my younger brother and all the other people I had grown to love. I didn't want to be the monster that I was.

But I can't go back and change the past. No matter how much I wanted it to disappear.

There had always been something different about me, even before the evil venom was injected into my blood. My parents always told me they knew there may have been something particular about me from the very beginning. They always would mention when I was born, in such conversations. When I was born, I wasn't crying. Something not too uncommon, of course. But still, different.

I had an uncanny ability for getting into trouble. I was a curious little tyke, which often get me into heaps of said troubles. Despite being a handful, I was a pretty normal looking kid. I had tousled, dark brown hair and stormy-gray eyes.

My younger brother, Wu, was born when I was about two years old. Wu was pretty much the opposite of me. Besides sharing our Dad's gray eyes, we were pretty different.

Wu had platinum blond hair, and an innocent face that you never could see doing any harm. He followed the rules, was always polite and quiet, and was seen by every teacher as some sort of angel.

For two people who were not very simular in any way, we became decently close. In fact, I think my closeness to my brother was why everything happened. It all started on a regular Saturday morning, in which I was introduced to Wu's best friend.

And in which I became destined for my doom.


	2. Chapter 2: Meeting Misako

I mashed the "A" button down on my video-game controller as fast as I could, the intensity of the alien horde thickening with every moment. Wu, to no surprise, wasn't doing very well.

"Dude, just mash the buttons! It's really not that difficult." I said, annoyed Wu wasn't helping me beat the aliens.

"Quinn, but the combos in the instru-" Wu began.

"No one uses the stupid combinations, Wu! They just smash the buttons!" I exclaimed.

Wu seemed to be going through inner turmoil, as his eyebrows knitted together in anguish. It would have been funny if I hadn't been so frustrated at his ignorance. I was going to be killed by the giant horde of aliens, and that was NOT the way I wanted to start my Saturday morning.

"Fine. If mashing buttons is too obscure for you, or it offends your 'moral ethics' of disobeying the instructions, then give me your stupid controller." I demanded. Knowing not to argue with me, he gave me his controller, and sulked out of the room, most likely to cry dramatically somewhere near the location of our parents.

Knowing time was limited before my Mom or Dad came to scold me about treating Wu "unfairly", I smashed all the buttons I could, simultaneously, on both controllers.

I was just about to finally beat the aliens, when the T.V suddenly shut off. I rolled my eyes and looked at my mom, who held the T.V plug in her hand.

"Really?" I said angrily, "You didn't even let me save?"

"You hurt your brother's feelings. Apologize." My mother demanded, ignoring my protesting. I glared at my younger brother, who was sniffiling in the doorway. He deserved no apology from me.

"He hurt MY feelings by being such a horrible gamer." I retorted. Immediately, my mom put on her angry face, and I knew I had gone too far. Wu and I called it the face of doom. Basically, it meant sudden death.

"QUINN MONTGOMERY GARMADON. That is NOT how you talk to your mother OR your brother. You are almost fifteen, you should KNOW better." Mom screeched. Wu had disappeared from sight. "Go to the training course and think about your attitude, young man!"

I stomped out of the room in a dramatic huff, making my angry way towards the training courtyard out in front.

Our house was an old monastery, kept nicely trimmed and stable. Our dad loved to spar, and also happened to be a famous, powerful ninja master. So naturally, we had a fully-fledged training courtyard out in front.

I came out to said courtyard quite a lot, actually. It was where I relieved stress, fought my demons, and also kept myself physically healthy. The training course was my life. Other kids had tiny toys or dolls for their childhood. I had my training equipment.

I grabbed my favorite, black steel katana from the weapon rack on the wall of the house. It had been my birthday present last year. Compliments to the state-of-the-art blacksmith shop called "Four Swords".

The training dummies were already set up, and so I immediately began swinging my black steel katana, with a skill most rare for an almost fifteen-year-old., if I do say so myself.

My father had always said I was a natural when it came to the art of sword handling. That, plus the tips that my ninja master of a father gave me, made me probably better than most of the grown men in the village.

Which was probably why the girl who had just opened the monastery doors looked terrified to find a teenage boy hacking defenseless training dummies.

She looked to be about my age, maybe a little closer to Wu's. She had mousy brown hair, held back in a french braid. She had gorgeous sea-green eyes, and a cute splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose. My young, adolescent heart didn't know how to handle a cute girl.

"If you're here to sell girl scout cookies, I'll have the minty kind." I blurted without thinking. She obviously wasn't wearing a girl scout uniform, and seemed a little bit too tomboyish to enjoy selling cookies in her free time.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" The girl asked, while suspiciously eyeing my katana, "This is the Garmadon household, right? I swear, if Wu gave me the wrong directions…"

Before I could answer either of her questions, The front doors slammed open, and Wu came running out of them, his arms outstretched towards this mystery girl.

"Misako!" He exclaimed in pure excitement, as he wrapped her in a huge bear hug. Her mood changed from scared and confused to happy and elated, and before I knew it, the two were wrestling on the ground, squealing and laughing.

So THIS was Misako. Wu's very best friend. I had heard so much about her from Wu, but had never seen her until now. They became friends through a geeky science fair project that involved rolling a marble down a race car track, or something like that. I honestly had no idea what that had to do science, but at the same time, I wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch.

They stopped wrestling eventually, and Wu helped Misako up off the floor.

"Misako, meet my older brother Quinn. Quinn, meet Misako." Wu said, introducing the two of us to each other. She smiled and nodded at me, no longer afraid of the katana I held in my hand. I smiled back.

It was only for a few moments that Misako and I had held eye contact, before Wu ushered her inside so they could work on some homework together. But those few moments felt intense to me.

It may have just been me, of course, but when we made eye contact, it felt like Misako wasn't just looking at my eyes. She was looking in my eyes, finding my soul, staring me down as she x-rayed my heart. Like she was testing me, prouding at me with her uncomfortable stare, looking for my weaknesses. Only much later would I realize that she wasn't looking for my weakness.

She was becoming it.

I didn't dare follow the two back inside the monastery. My mom was most likely still on the prowl, ready to confront me about my "attitude" as soon as I stepped a foot inside the house. I practiced swinging my katana for a couple hours until lunch, when I knew my mom would've calmed down. She still told me to watch my mouth, but she let me off the hook, knowing she could not combat the struggle that is sibling rivalry.

I was walking to my room, ready to face the doom of my homework, when someone behind me said my name.

"Quinn?" Misako said. I turned around and smiled at the girl that was walking down the hall towards me.

"We meet again." I joked. She snorted.

" First off, I'm sorry for not introducing myself properly earlier," She said, "I wasn't really expecting to find someone killing realistic looking dummies."

I laughed at this, remembering the look on her face.

"And second, where's the bathroom? Wu's too interested in our homework to hear me." Misako asked, rolling her eyes as she did so. I chuckled.

" That weirdo. I swear there's something wrong with him. The bathroom is down there, third door to your right." I said, pointing her down the hallway. She thanked me, and we parted ways once more.

As I worked on my homework, my mind kept jumping back to that soul-searching stare Misako had given me. It haunted me for the rest of the day. There was something about those searching eyes, something about that smile on her face; It had caught me off guard.

For the next year, I made it my goal to figure out what was so special about Misako. And even as we grew closer together (I could argue even closer than her and Wu), I was never able to quite place what was so special about Misako, the green eyed girl.

That is, until I had my first encounter with destiny. After that, everything I knew changed.


	3. Chapter 3: The Day Everything Changed

Junior year was a big year for me. I was doing well in school, I was able to drive, and I had a huge group of friends surrounding me. Being sixteen, for me, was pretty awesome.

Misako, however, was living a different story. Her parents had divorced, her grandmother had died, and her mother had fallen back to her old, alcoholic ways. Misako went home with us after school almost everyday, and essentially lived with us during the week. She stayed with us so often, that the guest room was called Misako's room, the walls having been repainted with her favorite shade of dark, royal blue.

I admit, over the year, I had grown another, greater feeling for my best friend. Misako was my very best friend, but sometimes, I found myself getting lost in her twinkling eyes, or noticed my heart speeding up with her cute laugh. It wasn't as though I things to speed up, or anything like that. I was perfectly fine with staying good friends. But the crush I had on her wasn't something I could ignore.

It was a Friday, the day everything happened. I was walking home alone, as I always did on Fridays. Misako was going to her Dad's house as she did every weekend, and Wu was staying after school at the robotics club that he enjoyed so much.

It was a relatively decent walk from the bus stop to the monastery. One had to walk a nature-y, beaten path from the main road to the top of a hill where the monastery was. A nice, relaxing walk to take during the day, and an incredibly scary walk to do at night. I, for one, loved all things nature. Especially animals. I loved all animals, no matter if they had four eyes, six legs, sharp teeth; they all were things I loved. I did not discriminate against animals.

I was walking the path, when an emerald green snake slithered across the trail. Immediately, I dove to the ground, trying to find the snake that had just disappeared into the bushes. The crown around its head had been nothing I had ever seen before, and I wanted to get a closer look at the potentially new species of snake I had just spotted. My head was buried in the bush, when I suddenly heard,

"Hey Quinn."

I jumped in surprise, jerking my head up and smacking it into the bush's branches. Misako, the voice, laughed as she helped me up off the ground.

"What were you doing down there?" She asked me, as I massaged my throbbing head.

"I saw a snake," I said, as if that would clear everything up, "What are YOU doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with your dad?"

Misako's smile immediately vanished, and her eyes left mine to look down at her feet.

"He's on a business trip… Am I allowed to stay the weekend?" She asked quietly, afraid of having to go live with her mom over the weekend.

"Misako." I said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me and into my eyes. "I wouldn't ever make you live with her. Of course you can stay over the weekend. Mom and Dad will completely understand."

Her eyes twinkled as a smile returned to her face, and she suddenly embraced me in a quick hug of thanks, before running up the path towards the monastery. I was dumbstruck for a couple of seconds, a healthy flush of red present on my cheeks, before running after her, both of us laughing all along the way as we played our game of race. Misako was almost always the one to win and get to the house first. Wu and I were always too busy pushing and shoving each other to ever beat her.

If I had known what was going to happen, I would have never gone home. I would have ran, as far and as fast as I could, away from the monastery. I couldn't predict the future, however. Misako and I entered the house without a worrying thought in our mind.

"Hey Dad." I called out, to the otherwise empty house. Misako disappeared into her room, probably to do homework in order to free her weekend up a bit. Sadly, even in being a sophomore like Misako, we all got more than enough homework from our teachers. I'm pretty sure we learned more at home than we did at school.

I walked down the hall and into my room, where I threw my backpack on the bed. It would probably stay there, and would only be touched when I moved it to the ground, or when I finally decided to do my homework Sunday night.

I gave my room a look over, just to make sure it was clean enough so my mom wouldn't bug me about it later.

My room was incredibly plain and simple. The floor was made of bamboo mats, and my walls were a tan, light color. This was how all the rooms in the monastery used to look before they were repainted and refurbished. I hadn't changed my room, though. Honestly, I liked the different feel to it. There was a couple posters of my favorite bands on the walls, but other than that, it was pretty plain. I got my own bathroom though, which I really enjoyed.

Before I left to go train on the training course, I decided to check in on my dad.

There was one big rule in the house that no one ever dared to disobey. Nobody in their sane mind would try and walk into Dad's meditation room while he was in there. Wu and I both learned this at a very young age. Mom never told us why, but she did tell us he did very important things in there that could not be interrupted. Neither of us had ever tried to test that. We could tell how serious it was.

I stood outside the door to his meditation room, about to knock on the door, when I heard a voice.

"Come in." My dad said from inside the room. I hadn't even needed to knock.

I opened the door to find my father sitting cross-legged on a bamboo mat, with a pot of burning sticks in front of him.

"Hello Quinn," My dad said, without opening an eye, "How was school?"

My Dad was a very mysterious man. He always wore an ancient chinese-styled hat, an elegant, ancient silk robe covered in old runes, and always looked at you with a quiet, calculating stare. I didn't know too much about my father, other than he was famous for something big, he had awesome ninja skills, and that I got my grey eyes from him. I didn't have much connection to him. It always seemed to me that he liked Wu better, anyways.

"It was alright. Misako is going to stay with us over the weekend. Her dad is out of town." I explained. He slowly nodded once, indicating he was okay with this.

"Okay, cool. I'll be out on the training course if you need me." I said.

No response. He seemed to have fallen back into some trance, where he could no longer hear me.

"Awesome. Good talk." I muttered, before closing the door behind me as I walked out. As I said, he was a mysterious man. It was hard to connect with him.

I made my way outside for my daily training. Friday was always the day of which I tried to push myself as hard as I could in my training, using moving equipment and obstacle courses to make it harder.

Grabbing my black steel katana, I began to practice. I dodged the swinging axes, sliced the flying arrows, combated the moving training dummies; I used all the strength I had until I was dripping in sweat.

I was dodging arrows again, doing back flips and other cool ninja stuff like that, when I saw Misako out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey." I grunted, as I brought down my sword on the last flying arrow.

"Nice." She said. I grinned, turned the training system off, and flipped my sweat coated hair out of my face.

"You probably don't want to be near me," I joked, sitting down on the porch steps, " I smell disgusting."

Misako laughed and sat down next to me, handing me a glass of water that she had been holding. I thanked her for the glass, as the nice cold water soothed my throat.

"You don't smell that bad. Not as bad as usual." Misako teased.

"Thanks?"

We laughed for a couple of seconds, as I took another gulp of the ice cold water.

"I was wondering… Could you teach me how to do all that?" Misako asked as I wiped my mouth on my sleeve.

"What? Train?" I said.

"Yeah. You know, all that stuff you do with your sword."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's not as easy as it looks, Misako. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of patience." I warned her. She frowned at me.

"Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't do what you can do." She said, annoyed.

"That's not what I meant," I protested, setting the glass on the steps and standing up again, "I just meant it's a hefty workout."

"I can manage." She promised.

Sword wielding wasn't as easy as it looked. It required perfect hand-eye coordination, as well as patience and determination. However, Misako was a persistent, determined woman, and anything she put her mind to, she could accomplish.

"First, you have to pick out the right sword," I explained, walking her over to our sword rack, which held many of such weapons, "It's usually best to get one made just for you, but for now, you can just practice with a generic one."

I grabbed a lighter sword, and handed it to her. She took it, and followed me back onto the training course.

"Now, in order to be good, you first have to learn the basic stance-" I began.

"Why does your sword look different than mine?" Misako interrupted. I smirked. Misako never was one for directions.

"It's a katana. A different styled sword. More swift, less clunky." I explained. She nodded, and let me continue.

Misako was a quick learner, absorbing the basic stances, in offense and defense. It was enjoyable, watching her learn to do something I loved. I liked teaching her, too.

"Alright, now I think we're ready to-" I began, when she interrupted me once more.

"I want to spar." She demanded. I chuckled in surprise.

"Alrighty then," I said, accepting her challenge, "Let's go get some sparring armor."

Suited up and ready to go, Misako took the first move, aiming a stab at my lower rib cage. I parried it with ease, and then took a sidestep to the right, ready to strike her side.

Suddenly, with an ease I didn't expect, Misako twirled around and brought her sword down on my shoulder pad.

"Nice." I commented, a hint of surprise in my voice. She grinned, and brought her sword in for a stab at my chest. My katana made contact with her weapon, and I instinctively twirled it out of her grip, and hit her with the butt of my sword, causing her to lose balance and fall to the ground.

"Oh crap. I'm sorry!" I apologized, setting y sword on the ground, before offering my hand to help her up.

"It's fine, silly." She laughed as she took my hand and stood up.

I suddenly had a jump in my heart, when her hand didn't let go of mine. She looked down at our connected hands, and looked back up into my eyes. Her sea green eyes melted me, and the butterflies in my stomach did loops and twists.

She smiled.

I was about to take her other hand in mine, in an attempt to be brave, when the doors connected to the outside world opened.

I ripped away from Misako, leaving her confused, as I stared wide-eyed at my younger brother, hoping he hadn't noticed us holding hands.

I was well aware of the major crush Wu had on Misako. I always made sure to lessen any rivalry between us. A love triangle was the last thing Misako (or any of us) needed, especially in the only place where she could find true happiness.

"Hey Wu." I said, waiting for him to squint at me, like he always did when he was angry at me.

"Hey guys." My brother said, smiling at us, having not seen anything. I sighed in relief

"How was robotics?" Misako asked him, as we unlatched our armor, done with her lesson for the day.

"It was fine. Teddy's taking over again." Wu grumbled. Teddy, my best friend since I could remember, loved robotics, and took over a lot in their robotics club. It was an ongoing power struggle they had.

"Ah, well, he'll never change." I said. Wu sighed in defeat.

"I know what will cheer you up," Misako announced, smiling ear to ear, "Some good old fashioned video games."

Wu's face immediately lit up.

"You'll join, right?" Wu asked her.

"Of course." She said, and he grinned even wider.

Before she went with my brother to play video games, however, she turned to look at me, a melting stare that made my knees go weak.

"Thank you for the lesson. Another time, okay?" She said, smiling at me in a way that made my stomach do somersaults once more.

"Y...y...yeah." I stuttered, a blush coming to my cheeks. I watched as Wu's eyes narrowed, picking up on something that he was obviously not okay with.

They both went inside, and I knew I was about to be in big trouble with my younger brother.

Sure enough, in the evening, just as the sun was about to set, Wu opened my bedroom door, without even knocking, disrupting my reading.

"Spar. Now." Wu ordered me,. I could almost see the waves of anger rolling off him.

"Sure." I accepted, ready to face my doom.

We weren't even into our sparring gear yet, when Wu slammed his golden katana down on the ground.

"What the heck, dude." Wu growled, acid dripping in his voice. I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself, when he cut me off.

"Don't try to pretend you don't know what I'm angry about. You know how much I like her!" He yelled at me, "And I saw the way she looked at you! How could you go behind my back like that. I thought we were friends!"

I flinched.

"Wu, I-"

"Oh, don't 'Wu' me! You knew full well what you were doing! Flirting with a younger girl. Disgusting!" He shot at me.

"Please-" I tried again, beginning to get slightly angry.

"Don't try to honey me with your lies-" Wu began.

"Shut up!" I screamed at him, which immediately shut him up, "She didn't look at me any differently! Am I going to blush when a cute girl decides to smile at me? Yes! Does that mean I'm trying to 'steal' her away? No! Loosen up, Wu. Not all the world is out to get you, and I certainly am not!"

Wu seemed taken aback for a couple of seconds. His speech he had probably prepared had not expected me to interrupt.

"There's nothing between Misako and I," I said, trying to calm my brother down, "I think you're just over-thinking things."

Wu bowed his head in shame, his fists still curled in anger.

"I shouldn't have assumed you'd take her away." He apologized.

"It's okay. Let's just spar, okay? Get your mind off this." I said.

He nodded, and picked his golden katana up off the ground. We decided not to wear the sparing armor, and in a couple of minutes, I became his outlet to stress and anger, lessening his tension the longer we fought.

The sun was set when it happened. I saw Wu's sword slice toward me in the last seconds of sunlight, and in reflex, I twisted it out of his hand, up, and over the monastery wall.

"Crap." He muttered. Dad never allowed us to go outside the walls once the sun had set. He said it was to "protect us from the demons of the night', or something stupid like that. But again, we followed out dad's rules. Most of the time.

"You get it." I told Wu.

"No. You're the one that made it go over the wall. You get it." He countered.

"Fine, but next time, it's your turn." I mumbled, rolling my eyes.

I scaled up the monastery wall. Using the door would have been too loud, and would warn our father we were going outside the walls.

I jumped once I got to the top of the wall, my feet barely making a sound as I landed on the outside.

I didn't have to search long, finding Wu's golden katana glittering in the bushes.

I reached down to grab it, and almost got the handle, when I suddenly felt a searing, white hot pain piercing my hand. Quickly withdrawing my hand from the bushes, I saw two, circular bite marks on my hand.

Something bit me.

Out of the bushes slithered the snake I had seen earlier, as I had been coming home from school. It hissed and bared its fangs at me, before dashing away, into the dark.

My head suddenly became light and airy, as if I was to faint. My knees buckled underneath me, and I fell to the ground, not understanding what was going on.

The only thing I understood was the pain. The searing pinch had now turned to fire, and it felt as though my entire hand was on fire. I tried to open my eyes, to actually see if my hand was on fire. But my eyelids felt sealed shut, and they also felt like they were on fire, burning and combusting into painful flames.

The fire in my hand began to spread up my arm, the molten lava flowing up my veins, it;s only goal to take over my body. My eyes screamed in white hot pain. The worst pain I had ever felt in my life.

I screamed a bloodcurdling scream. The fire reached my chest, and everything went black.


	4. Chapter 4: The New Quinn Garmadon

*Author's note: Oh man. Such an emotional and dramatic chapter for all of you :D We get to find out some of Quinn's new powers as well as the beginnings of some major internal conflict! Fun fun fun! Enjoy!*

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the fact that I was no longer on the ground. I was in my room, laying on my bed, under my blankets. For a couple of seconds, I thought maybe it had all been just a nightmare. Until I opened my eyes.

My ceiling was tinged in a red shade. And so was the walls. And so was everything I looked at. Something was very wrong with my eyes.

I sat up in bed, holding my slightly throbbing head. The springs in the bed groaned in protest from the motion.

The memories of what had happened suddenly hit me and my headache, a sort of stream of moments that didn't quite connect together, like a dream.

There had been screaming, anger, yelling, crying, and the strongest feeling of hate I had ever witnessed. Hate was something quite alien to me, and it wasn't normal for me to feel an abundance of it.

Suddenly, my eyesight turned a darker shade of red, and as if another side of me was taking over, I told myself that my family and everyone else deserved my hate. I hated them for being there, watching me suffer, trying to tell me things were okay without knowing the immense pain I was going through. They must all be destroyed, forced to feel the sensation of being burned alive from the inside-

I quickly snapped out of it. These weren't my thoughts. I would never feel that way towards my family. They had been doing their very best to ease my pain. They didn't deserve any anger from me. I was beginning to become scared, afraid of what was happening to me.

In an attempt to wake myself up from whatever had its hold on me, I walked into my bathroom. I turned on the sink, splashing my face with cold water.

I stood there for a couple of moments, looking down at the sink as water dripped off my face. I finally reached over and turned off the faucet. I was afraid to look at my reflection in the mirror, but I knew I had to face myself at some point. I slowly raised my head to look at myself.

What I found looking back at me made me almost scream in terror.

A dark brown haired sixteen year old stared back at me with bloody, crimson red eyes. Although he seemed completely off guard, his face seemed to still be contorted into an angry sneer, as if he always looked that way. This… Person had milky pale skin, almost somewhat translucent looking. He looked… Scary. Evil. Sick. I couldn't make sense that this person in the mirror was also me. This couldn't be happening.

I heard my bedroom door creak open, and I scurried out of the bathroom, coming face to face with Wu, who was carrying a tray of food. My eyesight grew redder as we made eye contact, my hatred boiling up once more. He was the one that was supposed to get the katana. This was Wu's fault. The way I looked…

Wu stared, wide-eyed, into my crimson eyes. He seemed frozen in complete shock. My anger couldn't be contained at that point, and spilled over my control.

"Is this some kind of JOKE?" I screeched, as my stupid brother stared at me, dumbfounded. However, at the sound of my voice, he dropped the silver tray on the ground, scared out of his mind.

My voice sounded… Dark. A gravelly tone, an edge to it, that made each word a sharp dagger. A venom in my voice, an echo that shocked me out of my intense anger, scaring myself into speechlessness.

"No… Quinn… This isn't a joke." Wu stuttered quietly.

I sighed in stress, and sat down on my bed, the springs groaning in protest once more. I looked down at my milky pale hands, before putting my head in my hands, gritting my teeth.

"It was the snake," Wu said, as if he thought I hadn't already figured that out, "We were able to heal the puncture wounds… Everything else isn't fixable, though."

"Has Misako seen me yet." I said flatly. The last thing I wanted was for her to see me. I had become something from nightmares. I couldn't see her.

"She heard the screams… She doesn't know what's going on and she's getting really angry at us. Do you want to see her?" Wu asked. My eye twitched, as he casually thought scaring her would make anything better. He probably _wanted_ her to see me, so she'd scared of me. Then he could have her all to himself.

"I'd much rather be left alone right now." I snapped at him.

"I'll tell her th-" Wu began.

"That means you, too." I growled.

Wu stopped talking mid sentence, snapping his mouth shut quickly. He nodded, picked up the silver tray and the ruined sandwich, before leaving without another word, closing the door behind him.

I sighed once more, my voice rattling darkly in discomfort. This was too much for me to take in. One tiny, insignificant snake. That's all it took to change my appearance, my voice, my personality; It wasn't even supposed to be me who had gone over that wall. It was Wu's katana. Wu's destiny. Not mine.

I lay down in my bed, and slowly fell asleep to the sound of the dripping faucet, trying to escape my reality for a couple of hours.

I woke up to the sound of arguing outside my door. One person seemed to be resisting someone else, and the other one seemed to be hushing her, trying to keep her quiet. I immediately realized this was Misako and Wu. My brother sounded like he was doing his very best to keep her away from coming into my room, but I knew Misako would get her way sooner or later.

"I think I am obligated to see him! I'm allowed to know what happened!" Misako hissed at Wu from outside the door.

"We can't tell you. We're not even sure what to tell you. We don't understand much about it!" Wu protested.

"Then I'll get Quinn to tell me."

"But Quinn said-"

"I don't CARE what Quinn said! I'm going in to see him NOW!" Misako screeched at him. I could almost mentally picture him cowering in fear of her wrath.

I only had a few seconds to pretend to be asleep before she opened my door, coming into my room. I tried my best to be convincing, my eyes closed and my back facing her. I heard her close the door behind her, and walk over to me in my bed, sitting down on the end and putting her hand on my leg.

"What happened to you?" Misako whispered softly, "What happened to your skin?"

I didn't answer, trying to keep my breathing as calm and even as possible. She withdrew her hand.

"I know you're awake." She deadpanned.

I huffed in defeat, and layed on my back, no longer facing away from her. However, I didn't open my eyes. That was something I didn't want her to see. Something I wasn't ready to show her.

"Is there something wrong with your eyes too? Or am I just too ugly to look at." She teased. I mentally rolled my eyes. She was just as bad as anyone else, prying and questioning and wanting me to say things I didn't want to.

"I'm choosing not to open my eyes, if you don't mind." I said back, in a strained sort of manner. Her breath caught at the sound of my new, odd voice. I winced. I was beginning to scare her, and she hadn't even seen the worst part yet.

"Come on Quinn. Please. It couldn't be any worse. Open your eyes." Misako pleaded, her voice seeming to have become less confident and demanding. Weak with fear and nervousness.

"Define worse, Misako." I muttered.

"Please. For me?"

"I'd rather not." I spat back. I felt her freeze for a couple of seconds at the rude venom in my voice.

Her weight left the end of the bed, as she got up to leave. I waited for a couple of minutes, waiting for the door to open and then close behind her as she left my room. It didn't happen though. I was almost about to crack my eye open, to check if she was still there, when I suddenly felt something on my cheek. Something smooth and soft. With a deep inhale, I could smell a strong scent of hazelnuts and coconut, a hint of lingering mint.

And then my slow mind finally put two and two together.

That soft thing on my cheek was her lips.

My eyes immediately snapped open, a strong, electric feeling coursing through my body. And suddenly, the electricity zapped through me, becoming a physical energy, that blasted Misako off the bed and onto the ground.

"Oh crap!" I exclaimed, shooting out of the bed as quickly as I could to help Misako.

When she looked up at me from the ground, her face immediately contorted in horror, as if the last thing she ever wanted was for me to touch her again. Her eyes bugged when seeing mine, and she covered her mouth with her hand, tears welling up in her eyes.

"No, No, I didn't mean to hurt you! I'm sorry!" I exclaimed. My new voice, however, twisted my plea into a dark anger, of which seemed to scare her even more. Desperately, I reached my hand out to her, to help her up off the ground, trying to help. She cowered away from my hand, which was jumping with electricity, out of my control. I pulled it away quickly, and turned away as her tears spilled over on to her cheeks.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, which came out as more of an angry, low growl.

I felt completely useless, and without knowing what else I could do, I ran into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. My anger lashed out, and I screamed in frustration. This new me wasn't me. I didn't belong in this body anymore. I was no longer human.

Without knowing what I was doing, I began to destroy my bathroom. Kicking things with more strength than I ever thought possible, cracking mirrors with my fists, and breaking floor tiles with each stomp I took. I was losing it, when suddenly, the door flew open. It was Misako yet again, putting herself in danger.

"GET OUT! GET AWAY!" I screamed at her, my hands covered in electricity, sparking and fizzing with each second that my wrath fueled them.

Without warning, my body immediately decided that it was time to let go of the said electricity built up in my hands. I couldn't unleash it, that much I knew. Misako would get hurt. Instead, with all the control I could muster, I held it in, releasing the electricity into my own skin.

I felt as though I was frozen, the electricity hitting my muscles and making them spasm out of control. I was buzzing, fizzing, paralyzed, and dizzied.

The electricity finally depleted itself, and I fell to the bathroom floor in pain. Misako screamed in horror, and ran to me, diving to the ground and wrapping me in her arms, tears traveling down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She cried, hastily stroking my hair as her tears hit my face.

"Go.. Away.. I'm not safe…" I managed to tell her. I was right, I wasn't safe. I was a bomb, that could blow up at any moment, without warning. Yet she still clung on

"I don't care." She whispered, breathing shakily. I closed my eyes to her rhythmic stroking, and my breathing began to calm down, along with hers. There was a couple moments of silence before either one of us talked again.

"It's okay. We'll… We'll fix this." She said.

"How... How will we fix this. I'm a monster."

"No-" She began.

"Yes, Misako... Yes. I'm a monster." I said, as a single tear went down my cheek.

She protested, saying something, but I suddenly couldn't hear her. Her voice faded away, into the background, as I slipped into unconsciousness.

I woke up once more to the sound of my father's voice, and to a warm heat that I was wrapped around.

"This is too much stress for the boy," My father said quietly, "His body is going through a rough transition. His heart is trying it's very best to reject the venom, along with his brain."

"Monty… What do we do?" Mom whispered, her voice sounding pained.

"I'm not sure there's anything we CAN do, Carina. This is something beyond our realm of knowledge. He's gaining powers… He's changing internally. I'm not sure what the venom of that snake does to people, or whether the effects it has on people stays constant through all humans. It's too unknown to predict what's going on." My father said. I felt my mom's warm hand caress my back in worry. The warm heat that I was wrapped around moved slightly, and I instinctively squeezed it closer to me.

"Misako…" My mother whispered, as I realized what, or rather who, the warmth in my arms was, "She was able to bring him down from his anger. That's a feat to undertake."

"He injured himself to the point of unconsciousness. She wasn't able to really stop him from bursting," My father pointed out, being the typical insensitive man that I always viewed him as, "But I DO think that she'll become a vital part to his recovery. If there is any, that is. There's only a few people our son lets them get close to him. He trusts her. I mean, look at them…"

There was a quietness between my parents for a couple of moments.

"Let's leave them alone. Quinn needs his sleep, and it looks like the only rest he can get is with her. We'll wake them up in the morning." My mother said. They both left the room, and I drifted off to sleep once again, holding Misako tight in my arms, feeling safe, as long as she was around.


End file.
